Over 130 years of survival by a small, isolated population of Favia gravida corals at Ascension Island (South Atlantic)

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In memoriam:Leendert P. van Ofwegen (1953–2021), octocoral taxonomist

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DNA barcoding of a stowaway reef coral in the international aquarium trade results in a new distribution record

Dead corals and limestone boulders that act as substrate for live specimens of marine invertebrates and algae are sold as ‘live rock’ in the international aquarium trade. During a customs inspection of an airfreight shipment of ‘live rock’ at Schiphol Airport (Netherlands), 450 boulders imported from Indonesia were checked for the presence of undeclared organisms. During unpacking, about 50% of the boulders appeared to have small stony corals attached to them. Some of these corals belonged to a species unknown from Indonesia. Mitochondrial COI and nuclear ITS markers revealed 100% and 99.3% match with Polycyathus chaishanensis Lin et al., 2012, a species reported from tidal pools in Taiwan. This new distribution record suggests that despite their easy access, intertidal and shallow subtidal reef coral assemblages (< 1 m depth) may still be underexplored

Rarity in the native range of the Lessepsian migrant <i>Plocamopherus ocellatus</i> (Nudibranchia):Fact or artifact?

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 enabled a large number of Indo-Pacific marine species to expand their ranges into the Mediterranean Sea (Galil et al. 2017), entering the Gulf of Suez from the Red Sea and migrating northwards towards the easternmost basin of the Mediterranean. These species have been called 'Lessepsian migrants' (Yonow 2015), 'Lessepsian immigrants' (Kleitou et al. 2019), or 'Lessepsian invaders' (Ivkic et al. 2019), named after Ferdinand de Lesseps who planned the Suez Canal's construction, or 'Erythraean non-indigenous species' (Galil et al. 2017), after the Erythraean Sea, an earlier maritime designation including both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden

Seahorse predation by octopuses in the Caribbean and the West Pacific

There is much documentation about seahorses (Hippocampus spp.) being threatened by habitat degradation and overfishing, but relatively few published studies mention their natural predators. The present study documents three cases in which seahorses are being caught by octopuses. In one case, the seahorse was partly consumed. These observations made at Bonaire (Caribbean Netherlands) and New South Wales (Australia) suggest that predation on seahorses by octopuses may be more widespread and common than previously thought

The reef coral <i>Coscinaraea marshae</i> is not a high-latitude endemic

The ‘temperate’ reef coral Coscinaraea marshae Wells, 1962, is reported from Siberut Island (West Sumatra, Indonesia), a near-equatorial locality, 3375 km away from its northernmost range limit in Western Australia, where it is considered a high-latitude endemic. This tropical record suggests that the latitudinal distributions of poorly recorded reef corals may not yet be fully understood, which might be relevant in the light of progressing seawater warming

Salpivory by colonial reef corals at Curaçao, Southern Caribbean

A salp swarm was observed in Director’s Bay, Curaçao in July 2021, where salps were caught and consumed by three scleractinian colonial reef corals: Madracis auretenra, Locke, Weil & Coates, 2017; Meandrina meandrites (Linnaeus, 1758), and Montastraea cavernosa (Linnaeus, 1767). The first two scleractinians are newly recorded salpivores. Since the coral polyps were collaborating, predation was not restricted by polyp size. This is the first detailed report on salpivorous corals in the Caribbean